


Nightmare

by Greed-Lings Girl (musicofthespheres)



Series: After 'Verse [3]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Nightmare, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 15:46:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16200629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicofthespheres/pseuds/Greed-Lings%20Girl
Summary: These nightmares plague him night after night, but Ed finds solace in the bedroom down the hallway.





	Nightmare

Darkness. Then, thousands of wailing souls closing in. 

Panic. Scrabbling at the ground, fingernails clawing at asphalt and dust—trying to escape, but one arm is missing... and his leg, why can’t he feel his leg?! Long black tendrils of darkness grab hold of him, pulling him into the eternal void. He is helpless. 

“This is the price you pay, human,” the nothingness of Truth says, its vicious grin encompassing its visage before it flips around to reveal the innocent face of his little brother. _No, not Alphonse—take me instead!_ he tries to scream, but he cannot. There is no mouth on his face and his voice dies where it begins. A floodtide of red, viscous liquid—blood—sweeps him away and threatens to drown him in the memories. 

Tiny hands pull at his ankles, dragging him down, down—“Ed...ward?” the thing that used to be Nina whimpers as he goes under. 

And then he’s awake, the chilled night air lapping at his sweat-damp skin and the last vestiges of his nightmare clinging at the edge of his subconscious. 

With his hand—his _actual_ hand, flesh and blood—he grips the sheets and runs the fabric between his thumb and fingers. It’s real.  
This is what real feels like. 

Ed slings his legs—one of them still automail, that much hasn’t changed—over the edge of the bed and his feet bring him to Winry’s room where the door awaits him, partially open like it always is. It creaks as he pushes it aside, gentle light filtering in from the hallway and illuminating her sleep-soft face. 

He climbs onto the bed beside her and curls up, eyes tightly shut, and _breathes_. Her warmth grounds him. This is here. This is real. He focuses on what he can observe: the sliver of light running the length of her room from door to ceiling; the movement of her body as she breathes-in-breathes-out—the chill of the night air as Ed curls into himself just shy of touching her. 

Her breathing hitches. “Who?” she mumbles before her steelblue eyes blink open and alight on him. “Ed?” 

He wants to answer her but his mouth feels like it’s full of sand, dry and gritty and leftover from the nightmare that claimed his voice. His whole form shakes from the cold or the fear or the crying and Winry’s arm is around him in an instant, pulling him close, tucking the edges of the blanket over him. “It’s okay, Ed,” she murmurs. “It was just a nightmare. You can sleep here with me tonight.” 

The teartracks on his face prickle and tighten as they evaporate from his skin, taking with them his residual fear and lulling him off to sleep in her comforting embrace.

**Author's Note:**

> [I'm on Tumblr, come say hi!](http://jadefyre.tumblr.com)


End file.
